In the last four years, suicide bombing has become one of the avowed weapons of the right wing Boko Haram insurgency campaign in Nigeria, especially in the northern part of Nigeria. In the past, we have had suicide bombers detonating strapped bomb in the Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, Bornu, Adamawa, Yobe, Plateau, Kaduna and Kano States killing hundreds of innocent people in the process. Whereas in most of the instances where bombs were sporadically detonated, the political colouration and perceived intents were vague in contents as per those targeted, the July 23, 2014 twin-suicide bombings in Kaduna state and the July 27 & 28, 2014 Kano carnages appeared to have a different colouration from the usual suicide bombings. Musa Atiku places the two events into proper perspectives.

On 23rd July 2014 in the northern state of Kaduna, twin-suicidebombings targeted formerHead of State and opposition politician with massive following,General MuhammaduBuhari, and prominent IslamicCleric, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi. Both men survived unhurt but at least 40persons were killedwhile several others were woundedin the separate blasts whichoccurred about an hour apart.

Four days later, Boko Haram launched a series of attacks in anothernorthern state of Kano starting with an attack on the Christianneighborhood of Sabon Gari where explosives were thrown into a churchwhile service was going on. This was followed by multiple suicidebombings the following day. The suicide bombings were novel in thesense that the insurgents used underage female suicide bombers. Thetargets included a gathering of women buying kerosene in fuel station,a shopping mall and a group of students checking a deployment list forpost-graduation mandatory national service.

Similar attacks also occurred in both cities in September 2014, particularly nauseating was the bestial bomb explosions and indiscriminate shooting at the Federal College of Education in Kano where many students were killed.What is the Meaning of these Attacks?

The attempts on the lives of the Sufi sect leader and the leadingopposition politician in Kaduna were obviously meant to precipitate anethno-religious crisis and further split the Nigerian workers and youthalong ethnic and religious lines. It must be said this is by no meansa new tactic by Boko Haram. The insurgents had earlier utilized suchlines of division created by the backward Nigerian bourgeoisie. Theindigene-settler and minority-majority conflicts easily come to mind.

Throughout 2011 and beyond the insurgents had made one of theirprimary targets the Christian minority populations in the northernpart of the country. This took the forms of bombings and sniperattacks on Sunday church services attended mostly by women andchildren. The insurgents also attacked churches in areas withMuslim-minority populations under the banner of defending Islam andMuslim minorities. All these were attempts to further create divisionamong the Nigerian masses and create sympathy for the insurgents amongMuslim locals, especially if there were revenge attacks by Christianfundamentalists on innocent Muslims.

The attacks on Buhari and Sheik Dahiru Bauchi should also be seen inthis light. Some bourgeois politicians from the northern Nigeria havebeen for some time reinforcing the bigoted notion that Boko Haram wasthe creation of the Christian-led Federal Government to destroy themainly Muslim northern region. Elimination of a leading Muslimreligious leader and Buhari, who has a massive cult followingespecially in the North, will reinforce such message of bigotry. Itmay even throw the northern region into an ethnoreligious war. BokoHaram have this scenario in their mind when they planned the attacks.

The use of girl suicide bombers in Kano indicate a desperate attemptby the insurgents to prove their reach and capability after thedecisive defeat they suffered in the hands of the self-defense groupsin Borno, popularly known as Civilian JTF. The absence of accompanyinggunmen in such suicide bombings carried out by small girls may wellindicate the extremely limited capability of the insurgents. Thiscontrasts sharply with the sect's January 2012 attacks in Kano, whichwas meant to extinguish the revolutionary storm of the uprisingtriggered by removal of fuel subsidy, an uprising whose center wasshifting to Kano then.

Which Way Forward?

Workers’ Alternative has always maintained that the only way to defeat the insurgentsis through an organized popular resistance through democraticself-defense committees in neighborhoods, schools and workplaces withthe organized labour (NLC/TUC) taking a lead. The phenomenon ofCivilian JTF (in spite of the limitations) and its remarkable success in Borno reveals howself-defence can emerge spontaneously. But we neither worship nor bowto spontaneity; the fact that Civilian JTF units face real possibilityof being hijacked by the same bourgeois politicians responsible forcreating Boko Haram, this fact reveals the limits of spontaneity. But while supporters this Paper / workersalternative.com are still not strong enough to lead the formation of self-defencecommittees on a conscious basis, our potent idea can provide the requisite ideologicallead, notwithstanding the lack of forces to provide an organizational lead. This iswhy we place the responsibility on the shoulders of organized labour -leadership in NLC/TUC. Self-defence committees in motor parks, churches, mosques and markets have already started sprouting in Kano. Labour leaders must give teeth and conscious class colouration to this development and take the responsibility of leading thisspontaneous process.

For tertiary institutions, which appear to be prime targets of theinsurgents, students' and teachers' union must as a matter of urgencybuild democratic self-defence committees.

Self-defence committees not only provide the most effective way ofdefeating the insurgents, they also teach the workers the task ofdemocratic self-governance independent of bourgeois state. This takesus closer to a socialist state, a genuinely democratic state wherearmed people replace the standing army.